In August 2017, South Carolina math teacher Jennifer Olajire-Aro, 27, allegedly started making sexual advances toward a teen student.
According to The Post and Courier, the teacher started sending suggestive texts to a 17-year-old male student and talking to him about sex during class.
She eventually “encouraged and coerced” the student, identified only as John Doe, into having sex with her by threatening his grade, according to a lawsuit that the student and his parent filed last week against the Charleston County School District.
The student claims that the two of them eventually had sexual intercourse multiple times after her threats. The lawsuit said:
Each time Plaintiff John Doe would dismiss Aro’s advances and requests to perform sexual intercourse with her, Aro would remind Plaintiff John Doe that she alone controlled what grade he would receive in her class.
And when he started to resist her in December 2017, Olajire-Aro “acted on her threat and changed Plaintiff John Doe’s math grade from a 98 to an 89,” according to the lawsuit.
When the student received his final grade, he informed his parent about the sexual abuse.
The Burke High School teacher was arrested December 19 and charged with sexual battery with a student 16 or 17 years of age.
The civil lawsuit, which was filed Thursday, seeks compensatory damages for health care expenses.
The student and his parent claim that the Charleston County School District was negligent in its handling of the incident, resulting in emotional distress.
According to The Daily Mail, the teen’s mother called Olajire-Aro a “hellacious person” during a bond hearing.
Olajire-Aro had her teaching license suspended and left the high school in January 2018.
She and her husband have a young child together, who was around 10 months old when the alleged sexual abuse against the student started.
Her criminal case is still ongoing.